(BEDFORD) - Lawrence County students can start registering for classes next week. Mitchell students will report for classes on Aug. 13. North Lawrence students start classes the day after that.

Steve Ritter, director of buildings and grounds for the North Lawrence school system says almost all the work to prepare buildings for students is done.

Ritter says the biggest challenge this summer had been preserving the turf on athletic fields. Crews have been consistent with watering the fields during the drought.

Inside the buildings crews have replaced ceiling tiles in the hallways of five schools, Needmore Elementary, Parkview Primary, Lincoln Elementary, Shawswick and Oolitic/Dollens. Ritter says the old tiles were sagging because of humidity and were impossible to clean.

Among other things, a new insulated exterior covering was applied at Oolitic/Dollens, a new high-efficiency boiler was installed at Needmore, air conditioning was installed in the Stalker Elementary kitchen and some carpeting was laid at Oolitic Middle School.

A sewer line collapsed under Bedford Middle School and the school system brought in a contracting firm that ran a camera down the pipe and found the problem. It was about 100 feet from the restroom and eight to 10 feet deep. Rather than dig it up, school officials decided to abandon about 80 feet of the old line, which dates to the 1920s and reroute the line.